Device for sequentially driving large headed gimp nails

ABSTRACT

A device for sequentially driving nails, especially gimp nails connected in a row by a tape, into a workpiece, in which the nails are fed seriatim by a pawl adapted to engage behind the leading nail of the row into a cylindrical passage in which a driver rod is movable along an active stroke for driving the nail in the passage into a workpiece. Movement of the driver rod along its active stroke is actuated by a trigger lever mounted at one end for pivotal movement between a rest position and an actuating position. The trigger lever has at its other end a transverse pin engaging in a slot provided in a second lever pivotally mounted at one end and carrying on at the other end the aforementioned pawl. The slot has two slot portions including an angle with each other and arranged so that when the trigger lever moves from the rest towards the actuating position, the pin riding along one of the slot portions will cause the pawl to move the leading nail into the aforementioned passage, while during further movement of the pin through the other slot portion the pawl will be slightly retracted before the trigger lever reaches its actuating position.

Maestri [in 3,826,419 [451 July 30, 1974 DEVICE FOR SEQUENTIALLY DRIVING LARGE HEADED GIMP NAILS [76] Inventor: Giordano Bruno Maestri, 24, Via

Vincenza, Milan, ltaly Primary ExaminerGranville Y. Custer, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Michael S. Striker [57] ABSTRACT A device for sequentially driving nails, especially gimp nails connected in a row by a tape, into a workpiece, in which the nails are fed seriatim by a pawl adapted to engage behind the leading nail of the row into a cylindrical passage in which a driver rod is movable along an active stroke for driving the nail in the passage into a workpiece. Movement of the driver rod along its active stroke is actuated by a trigger lever mounted at one end for pivotal movement between a rest position and an actuating position. The trigger lever has atits other end a transverse pin engaging in a slot provided in a second lever pivotally mounted at one end and carrying on at the other end the aforementioned pawl. The slot has two slot portions including an angle with each other and arranged so that when the trigger lever moves from the rest towards the actuating position, the pin riding along one of the slot portions will cause the pawl to move the leading nail into the aforementioned passage, while during further movement of the pin through the other slot portion the pawl will be slightly retracted before the trigger lever reaches its actuating position.

5 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures {0 46' I ll 24 7 I g 7 /f 28 E :7 r F: 4 /i/////// /?l T DEVICE FOR SEQUENTIALLY DRIVING LARGE HEADED GIMP NAILS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention is concerned with a device for sequentially mechanically driving upholsterers nails or gimp nails having a large nearly hemispherical head and a relatively short pointed stem secured coaxially with said head at its concave face. More particularly, this invention is concerned with a new mode of providing a plurality of such nails, adapted to be fed into a nail driving device, in particular a hand-device generally similar to a conventional stapler or nail-driver, and designed to be supplied with a plurality of gimp nails and for driving such gimp nails in quick succession, to expedite upholstery work, or the like.

2. The Prior Art Nail and staple driving devices are well known in the art and widely used. A number of such devices consist of a portable unit having a pneumatically actuated reciprocating driving tool, designed to perform, upon operators command, a driving stroke by which one staple or nail is driven off a plurality of aligned and closely adjacent staples or nails positioned in a suitable magazine, guide means wherein the driving tool operates and spring means located in said magazine to bias the staples or nails towards said guide means for sequentially positioning one staple or nail in the path of said driving tool, as said tool has performed its return stroke, preparatory for a subsequent driving stroke.

Such known devices satisfactorily operate only when staples or when nails having a very small or a T-shaped head are to be driven-in. In other words, such devices are adapted for driving nails or similar fasteners which.

can be supplied in stock wherein the stems of the nails are aligned in closely adjacent relationship. It is evident that large headed nails, inparticular gimp nails, cannot be supplied to, and properly fed and driven-in by currently manufactured devices.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a new and improved device which is not subject to the above limitations, and which provide the craftsman with certain advantageous means enabling such craftsman to fastly, precisely and effortlessly driving gimp nails as required in upholstery and similar work.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new feeding arrangement controlled by a trigger lever used for actuating the driving tool.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION With these and other objects in view, the device according to the present invention for sequentially driving gimp nails connected in a row by a tape into a workpiece, mainly' comprises reciprocatable driver means including a driver road, movable along an active stroke for engaging a head of a nail and for driving the latter into a workpiece, and a return stroke, guide means including a cylindrical passage for guiding the aforementioned rod and the nail driven thereby, passage means communicating at one end with the cylindrical passage for guiding the tape connected nails toward the cylindrical passage, actuating means for actuating the reciprocatable driver means and including a trigger lever pivotably mounted at one end so as to be tiltable from a rest position to an actuating position causing the driver rod to move along its active stroke, and feeding means for feeding the leading nail of the row in the passage means into the cylindrical passage. These feeding means comprise a pawl arranged to engage behind the leading nail of the row of nail, a second lever carrying the pawl at one end and pivotally mounted at the other end thereof, in which the second lever is formed with a slot having two slot portions including an angle with each other. A pin fixed to the other end of the trigger lever is slidingly engaged in the aforementioned slot and the slot portions are arranged in such a manner so that during movement of the pin in one of the slot portions the pawl is moved toward the cylindrical passage to place the leading nail into the path of the driver rod, and so that movement of the pin in the other slot portion causes partial return movement of the pawl before the trigger lever reaches its actuating position.

These and other objects of this invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred mode of carrying out same, such description being referred to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a driving device designed according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of said device, taken in theplane II-II indicated in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of a detail of the device, taken in the plane indicated at III-Ill in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates same detail, with the elements positioned for the passage of the head of a gimp nail being driven;

FIG. 5 illustrates another detail, associated to the feeder means, in a fragmentary sectional view taken in the plane V-V of FIG. 6;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view of same another detail, taken in the plane indicated at VI-VI in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates a further detail, shown in section the taken in the plane indicated at VII-VII in FIG. 2;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are similar to FIG. 2, have parts illustrated in elevation, and show the device indifferent steps of the driving of a gimp nail;

- FIG. 10 illustrates in enlarged scale, partly in side elevation and partly in a longitudinal sectional view, a portion of the stock material provided for supplying a device such as illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 9 inclusive;

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary plan view of same stock material; and

FIG. 12 is a sectional view of one gimp nail, drivenoff the stock material of FIG. 10 and drive in a wooden structural element, for example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus generally comparable with a conventional well known pneumatically operated stapler, designed to be connected to a source of pressurized air (not shown) by means of a suitable hose, the outlet end portion of which is fragmentarily indicated by dot-and-dash lines. Such apparatus comprises a substantially cylindrical body 10 wherein a known driving tool actuated by cylinder-piston means is located. Such body 10 is fixedly secured to or integrally formed with a hand-grip forming extension 12. Below the hand grip suitable trigger means are located for actuation of the apparatus. Such trigger means preferably consists of a trigger lever 14 pivoted at 16 to the hand grip.

At the lower end of the body an outlet piece 18 is located, such outlet being bored for axial driving of individual gimp nails each having a relatively short pointed stem 26 anda relatively large essentially hemispherical head 28, the details of such gimp nails being shown in larger scale in FIGS. 10 and 12. Such gimp nails, per se, do not form part of the invention.

Within the body 10 a cylinder 20 (fragmentarily shown in FIG.'2) is located. This cylinder forms a part of a well known pneumatically operated driving tool actuator, which will not be described and shown as appertaining to current art. By acting on the trigger lever 14 in the direction indicated by arrow A in FIG. 1, a pushbutton 22 connected to an also well known valve device (not shown) is depressed by which the actuator is caused to promote the stroke of the driving tool to drive a nail in direction. B. Said trigger lever 14 comprises a cross-part 24 positioned engage the valve operating push-button. 22 from below.

Apart from the features of the invention, described below, which enables a known device (such as a pneumatically operated stapler or nail driver) to drive-in large headed nails, such device operates and can be used essentially as such known device. The operator, gripping the device at its extension 12, positions and applies the outlet piece 18 to the surface S into which one gimp nail is to be driven. By acting on the trigger lever 14, a gimp nail '26, is forcedly expelled through said outlet piece and driven-in.

One feature of the invention consists in the improved magazine portion of the device. Such portion includes a guide passage 30 (FIGS. 2, 8 and 9) longitudinally joining another extension 32 of the body 10. Such guide passage is longitudinally grooved for guiding the stems 26 of the gimp nails, in aligned and parallel relationship while the large heads thereof slide over planar surfaces at both side of the groove.

Another important feature of the invention consists in the fact that the gimp nails 26, 28 are fed into the magazine portion in form of a stock material wherein a plurality of gimp nails are secured to each other, in aligned, parallel and evenly spaced relationship (the interval between the stems 26 of adjacent nails being equal to or very slightly greater than the diameter of their heads 28), by a strip or tape 34 of essentially flexible material which can be readily severed or torn-off between subsequent nails.

This latter feature can be seen in detail in FIGS. 10 to 12. Such tape 34, preferably made of plastic material, such as polyvinyl chloride, is few tenth of a millimeter thick and wide less than the diameter of heads 28. The tape 34 has evenly spaced perforations 122 preferably beaded at 124, wherein the several stems 26 are individually fitted until the heads 28 abut on the upper face of the tape. This tape is further provided with evenly spaced and symmetrical indentations 126, where the heads 28 are adjacent (see in particular FIG. 11), to facilitate the severing or rupture of the tape during driving of individual nails.

It is evident that, during driving-in of individual nails for securing a material 116 (FIG. 12), such as leather or a texture, to a bearing structure 118, such as a wooden component of a piece of furniture, a piece 34a of the tape 34 will remain below the head 28 of the driven-in nail. This fact does not prejudice the drive-in and the firm grip of the nail in the structure 118, and it isalso advantageous. The piece 34a will remain fully concealed below the nail head 28 and protects the inside of same from moisture penetration, for example, thus preventing rusting or oxidization of the welded connection at 112 of the stem 26 to the head 28, staining of the covering material 116, as sometimes occurs when conventionally manually driven-in gimp nails are used.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the said stock material consisting of the plurality of gimp nails 26, 28 and the tape 34, might evidentally be very long, when including a relevant number of gimp nails spaced according to the diameter of their heads 28. Such stock material can be slidably set within a proper magazine consisting preferably of a hose 36 (fragmentarily shown in dot-and-dash lines in FIG. 1) connected to the inlet end portion of magazine portion 32, as above indicated. Such hose 34 can be wound about a large diameter drum, or otherwise sustained and arranged, or the stock material can be suitably coiled into a suitable container having an outlet arranged for having the stock material transferred into the magazine portion of the device.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 to 5, 8 and 9, there is shown a' cylindrical passage 38 bored co-axially with the pneumatically operated piston (not shown) reciprocatably located in cylinder 20, the said grooved guide passage 30 having its outlet in passage 38, whereby the foremost gimp nail in said grooved guide 30 can be transferred into the cylindrical passage 38 (see FIG. 8). Such cylindrical passage is of diameter slightly greater than that of the heads 28 of the gimp nails. The pneumatically operated piston has a cylindrical driver too] 40 secured thereto for reciprocation in said bore 38. The lower end portion 42 of the driver tool is concave and preferably tubular for abutment from above on the head 28 of the gimp nail positioned in said bore, for driving the nail in direction B, through the outlet piece 18 and then driving it in where desired, upon actuation of the known pneumatic mechanism, triggered by a pressure exerted on said push-button 22.

The trigger lever 14 acts on said push-button 22, by means of its part 24, and on a second lever 44 oscillatably pivoted at 46 to the body 10 of the device. At its lower end, said second lever 44 is pivoted at 48 to a small pawl lever 50 adapted to engage individual heads 28 of the aligned nails and to step-by-step successively positioning the foremost nail in the bore 38. An extension 52 of the pawl 50 is provided for disengaging such pawl from the nails, when the operator desires pulling back such nails from the magazine portion of the device. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, other ratchet pawl means 54 are provided for preventing unduly back motions of the forwardly progressed nails. Such ratchet pawl means can be raised for disengaging the nails upon acting on same extension 52. The ratchet pawl 54 is pivoted at 56 to the structure 32 of the magazine por tion and it is spring biased by a small spring 58.

The connection between the trigger lever 14 and the second lever 44 is provide by a pin 60 secured to the end portion of lever 14 (opposite to its end pivoted at l6, FIG. 1) and slidably engaged in a groove 62 in the second lever 44. Such groove has two differently inclined parts along which the said pin 60 successively runs during the motion of the trigger lever in direction A.

When the trigger lever 14 is moved by the operator from its rest position, shown in FIG. 2, in the direction of the arrow A indicated in FIG. 8, the pin 60 on the lever 14 will at first ride upwardly in the lower portion of the slot 62 formed in the second lever 44 carrying the pawl 50 so that the latter will be tilted in clockwise direction about its pivot pin 64 to thereby move the leading nail 28 into the path of the driver rod 40 when the pin 60 reaches the position as shown in FIG. 8. In this position of the pin 60, the cross member 24 on the trigger lever 14 is still spaced from the push button 22 as clearly shown in FIG. 8. During the further upward movement of the pin 60 to the position as shown in FIG. 9, in which this pin rides along the upper portion of the slot 62, the lever 44 will be tilted in counterclockwise position so that the front end of the pawl 50 is withdrawn out of the cylindrical passage 38 to avoid .any possible interference of the front end of the pawl with the downwardly moving driver rod 40. Such rearward movement of the pawl 50 is shown slightly exaggerated in FIG. 9. At the end position of the trigger lever 14, as shown in FIG. 9, the pushbutton 22 is depressed, which actuates in a known manner movement of the driver rod 40 along its driving or active stroke. During return movement of the trigger lever 14 from the position shown in FIG. 9, to the position shown in FIG. 2, which may be caused by a spring, not shown in the drawing, the front end of the pawl will first move slightly forwardly, whereafter the lever 44 is turned in counterclockwise direction about its pivot pin 46 so as to move the pawl 50 to the position shown in FIG. 2, at which the front end of the pawl engages again behind the head of the nail which is now in leading position. It is evident that, owing to the fact that the considered gimp or upholsterers nail 26, 28 is provided with a head 28 of diameter many times larger than that of its stem 26, such stem cannot properly be guided through a guide passage (such as the bore 38) dimensioned for guided movement of said head. While the proper positioning of a nail in the bore 38 and the exact abutment of the end 42 of the driver tool 40 of the head of the nail could statistically ensure a relevant number of correct driving-in of nails, some misdrivings might however occur also.

Therefore, according to an advantageous feature of the invention, the outlet piece 18 is preferably provided with means adapted to improve the driving and to correct misalignment, if any, during the driving stroke. Such means are made, for example, as shown in FIGS. 3 an 4. Two (or possibly more) wing pieces 70 are symmetrically and oscillatably located at the sides of the outlet piece 18, and biased towards each other by rela tively weak springs 72. The lower portions of said wing pieces are converging towards each other and jointly form a nearly conical guide, pointing downwardly and having its downward pointing apex in the axis of bore 38 and driver tool 40, 42. Therefore, as the driver tool starts it downward driving stroke, a sequence of steps nearly instantaneously occurs:

i. as the driver tool end 42 abuts on the nail head in the bore 38, and starts drive same to downwardly, the edge of the head 28 severs or tears the tape 34, the part 34a (FIG. 12) below said head being carried with the nail;

ii. the inwardly converging lower portions of the wings are contacted first by the lower pointed end of the stem 26. If such stem was not exactly coaxial with the bore 38, such pointed end will be deviated in the axis of the bore by sliding on the inner face of the contacted wing;

iii. as'the drive of the nail progresses, the head 28 will at its turn engage the wings 70, causing the same to diverge (overcoming the springs 72) for passage and driving out of the head of the nail.

It will be noted that the pointed end of the stem 26 will protrude from the outlet piece 18 before the head 28 will start to diverge the said wing pieces, and therefore such end of the stem will have engaged the material into which it is being driven. Such engagement will ensure the proper position of the stem and the correct.

completion of the driving-in of the gimp nails.

FIG. 7 illustrates an ancillary implement which further improves the correct positioning of any gimp nail in the bore 38, preparatory to driving-in. Such implement has also swingable wing pieces 74 biased by small springs 76 and symmetrically located in the outlet portion 78 of the grooved guide passage 30 in the magazine portion 32 of the device. Such wing pieces 74 form a tapered passage therebetween, in which the stems of the gimp nails are caused to improve their co-planarity with the axis of the bore 38 while being pushed thereinto by the pawl 50.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of devices for sequentially driving nails into a work'piece,differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a device for sequentially driving gimp'nails connected in a row by tape into a workpiece, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of'this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

1. A device for sequentially driving gimp nails, connected in a row by a tape and having each a relatively large head and a coaxial pointed stem, into a workpiece, the device comprising, in combination, reciprocable driver means including a driver rod movable along an active stroke for engaging the head of a nail and driving the latter into a workpiece, and a return stroke; guide means including a cylindrical passage for guiding said rod and the nail driven thereby, passage means communicating at one end with said cylindrical passage for guiding the tape connected nails toward said cylindrical passage; actuating means for actuating said reciprocatable driver means and including a trigger lever pivotally mounted at one end so as to be tiltable from a rest position to an actuating position causing said driver rod to move along its active stroke; and

ing two slot portions including an angle with each other, and a pin fixed to the other end of said trigger I lever slidingly engaging said slot, said slot portions being arranged in such a manner so that during movement of said pin in one of said slot portions, said pawl is moved towards said cylindrical passage to place the leading nail into the path of said driver rod, and so that movement of said pin in the other slot portion causes partial return movement of said pawl before said trigger lever reachesits active position.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, and including spring-biased jaw means in said passage means closely adjacent said cylindrical passage for centralizing the stemvof a nail relative to the axis of said cylindrical passage before the nail enters such cylindrical passage.

3. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said cylindrical passage is formed with a pair of opposite openings, including a pair of pivotally mounted wings respectively extending through said openings, and having slanted faces converging toward the axis of the cylindrical passage and spring means engaging said wings for urging said slanted faces towards each other for guiding thepointed end of a nail along said axis during driving of said nail by said driver rod.

4. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said passage means for guiding said tape connected nails toward said cylindrical passage comrises a central groove for the passage of the stems of said nails therethrough, and a pair of coplanar faces to opposite sides of said groove for guiding the tape.

5. A device as defined in claim 1 including a hose magazine connected to the other end of said passage means. 

1. A device for sequentially driving gimp nails, connected in a row by a tape and having each a relatively large head and a coaxial pointed stem, into a workpiece, the device comprising, in combination, reciprocable driver means including a driver rod movable along an active stroke for engaging the head of a nail and driving the latter into a workpiece, and a return stroke; guide means including a cylindrical passage for guiding said rod and the nail driven thereby; passage means communicating at one end with said cylindrical passage for guiding the tape connected nails toward said cylindrical passage; actuating means for actuating said reciprocatable driver means and including a trigger lever pivotally mounted at one end so as to be tiltable from a rest position to an actuating position causing said driver rod to move along its active stroke; and feeding means for feeding the lead nail of said row in said passage means into said cylindrical passage, said feeding means comprising a pawl arranged to engage behind the leading nail, a second lever carrying said pawl at one end and pivotally mounted at the other end thereof, said second lever being formed with a slot having two slot portions including an angle with each other, and a pin fixed to the other end of said trigger lever slidingly engaging said slot, said slot portions being arranged in such a manner so that during movement of said pin in one of said slot portions, said pawl is moved towards said cylindrical passage to place the leading nail into the path of said driver rod, and so that movement of said pin in the other slot portion causes partial return movement of said pawl before said trigger lever reaches its active position.
 2. A device as defined in claim 1, and including spring-biased jaw means in said passage means closely adjacent said cylindrical passage for centralizing the stem of a nail relative to the axis of said cylindrical passage before the nail enters such cylindrical passage.
 3. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said cylindrical passage is formed with a pair of opposite openings, including a pair of pivotally mounted wings respectively extending through said openings, and having slanted faces converging toward the axis of the cylindrical passage and spring means engaging said wings for urging said slanted faces towards each other for guiding the pointed end of a nail along said axis during driving of said nail by said driver rod.
 4. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said passage means for guiding said tape connected nails toward said cylindrical passage comrises a central groove for the passage of the stems of said nails therethrough, and a pair of coplanar faces to opposite sides of said groove for guiding The tape.
 5. A device as defined in claim 1 including a hose magazine connected to the other end of said passage means. 